


The Flowers Born of Love

by DawnLight20



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Hanahaki Disease, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25784896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnLight20/pseuds/DawnLight20
Summary: Kei had certainly heard of hanahaki, but had never thought he would love someone so much that he would suffer from it.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Kudos: 88





	The Flowers Born of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!! This is my first hanahaki story. I added a description so that it would be easier to understand for any first time readers. I hope you will enjoy it and now let me not keep you any longer. Happy reading everyone!!!

Hanahaki, the physical manefestation of love. It was the literal meaning of overwhelming love. When the love you felt for someone was so great but would not be expressed, that mixture of love and regret would transform into physical flowers, taking root in your lungs and eventually, if you never confessed or you got rejected the roots would overtake your lungs and you would stop breathing.

Depending on how strongly a person would feel, the time of survival would be decided. The stronger your feelings, the less time you had. The last known case had been 10 months. If you have confessed and got rejected though, it would become faster, much faster. The only sure way to get rid of the flowers and live was to surgically remove the flowers but that would also take away any romantic feelings you ever had for that person, and would ensure you never fell for that person again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tsukishima Kei had first met Kuroo Tetsurou in his first year of high school. They had played a practice match against each other, and one had turned into two and then three. It was during clean up that the other boy had first talked to him, and Kei, being who he is, had responded in a single sentence and then left.

That had by no means, been their last interaction but only the first of many. They had been invited to the Tokyo training camp and that was where Kei had met Bokuto Koutarou and Akaashi Keiji. They had all played together, and against each other and at the end of the camp, Kei had left with three new contacts and new friends.

Kei and others continued to get close, especially Kei and Kuroo, and not even their match against each other had damaged it. Instead their friendship had seemed to only strengthen with each passing day. Slowly the years went by, first Kuroo graduating and starting college and then Kei eventually becoming a second and then third year in high school, before suddenly even his graduation day had come.

Kuroo was a constant friend through it all, coming to all their matches and celebrating or comforting him when the situation called for it. Even on his graduation day, Kuroo had called him and jokingly lectured about everything to know about being a college student. Kei had taken it in stride, knowing Kuroo's ways after all this years.

Then he had started at Sendai University, studying paleontology while still playing volleyball. It was rough, but he enjoyed his schedule. The only thing he missed was Kuroo. Oh, they still saw each other, going to each other's place when they had time, and video calling every other day. It had been enough for Kei, once.

But somehow it had stopped being enough. Kei had begun to hope for something, had begun to feel something more for the other. He hadn't known what, not until hinata had come to him and Yamaguchi for help in figuring out his feelings for Kageyama. That had been at the end of his first year.

But when he realized what the feelings were, when he realized he had fallen in love with his upperclassman, the upperclassman he thought he could never have, he had despaired. He had cried and screamed and cursed himself in a rare display of emotion. Then he had made the decision to never confess. Thus began the downfall.

The first petal came one sudden evening, when he was setting the table. His brother had come down from Tokyo with Saeko that evening, and his mother had been cooking up a storm. Kei, who had seemed to have caught a cold, had been banned from helping in the kitchen and had been given table duty.

All of a sudden,he had had a coughing fit and had rushed to the washroom when he felt something come up. When he had opened his eyes, he had seen petals in his hand. His brother's cry of his name had alerted him of the other's presence, and also alerted the others that something was wrong.

His mother had taken one look at the petals and had immediately rushed all of them to the hospital. The doctor they had seen, when he had realized what was happening, had explained everything in a calm and sympathetic manner, but had not actually managed to calm his mother.

Hanahaki, it was called, the flowers born of overwhelming love. It was uncommon but by no means was it unique. There had been cases like this before, the doctor had said, and the only known methods of survival were requited love or surgery. If the flowers got into the lungs too much though, it would be too late to get surgery, because it would be too dangerous to try to extract the flowers then.

Kei had immediately said no to the surgery, not wanting to lose the feelings he had. When his mother and brother had tried to persuade him, he had said back the same words his mother used to tell them when they were young, about feeling such a love for someone that it would hurt to even think about not being with them.

He had cried then, and his mother had wrapped him in her arms, just like she used to when he had been young and had a nightmare. His brother had been crying too, Akiteru never one to hide what he was feeling. Kei had asked his sister-in-law not to say anything to her brother, not wanting the others to know of his condition, and she had tearfully nodded, before giving in and giving him a hug.

The doctor had been considerate, and had done an x-ray of Kei's chest to see the flowers and his progress. When the results had come, it was seen that Kei had flowers buds of baby's breath, red tulip, forget-me-not and honeysuckle. That had brought another round of teary eyes, but eventually Kei was allowed to go home, with an appointment with the same doctor next week. Kei had thought it was rather fitting that he would die with such flowers killing him.

Yamaguchi and Yachi had studied with Kei in the same university and since they met up fairly regularly, Kei had told them of his condition. They had also tried to make him confess, but Kei was adamant. He had also had to tell his coach, who allowed him to stay on as a starter as long as his health allowed. Eventually as it progressed, he would be unable to play sports, because his lungs would become unable to take the strain on his body.

His mother became more protective as time went by and he got more and more sick. His family had learnt who the feelings were for, but had listened to his request after a rather nasty fight they had had about it.

Kei was grateful that Kuroo was in his final year, for that meant that the other was too swamped with projects and classes to be able to come down to Miyagi, and Kei used that as an excuse to not go to Tokyo.

As the months went by, his condition became worse. The few petals became more and more, all four of the flowers now starting to fully bloom, and with it, it got more violent, coughing until the petals came out covered in blood. Kei became unable to properly eat, and his doctor advised them to turn to soft foods and liquids.

Sometimes his coughing fits would take his breath away, not being able to breath for long moments until the petals came out. The doctor had said it was unlikely Kei would be able to survive for more than a year, and as time went by, it became more and more obvious. Kei had to stop playing volleyball, and had started to simply watch the games and help out the managers.

Tsukishima Ritsu, Kei's mother, became more and more anxious as time went by. Watching her youngest son, her baby boy, dying because of his love, long before his time should have been, was painful, and a mother could never watch her child suffer so. So one day, a few days after Kei had hit his six month mark, Ritsu decided that she would at least try to save her son.

It had been a Friday, Kei had just returned home from classes, feeling more tired than usual. As he walked in and announced his arrival, he had noticed a very familiar pair of shoes in the colour red that he hadn't seen in months. 

He had ran inside, coming to a stop in the living room, and had noticed only his brother, sister-in-law and mother. His mother had jumped up, worried at his reaction and had asked what had been wrong. Kei had been about to answer, when he heard the voice he had hoped he would not hear.

He had turned around, and there he was, standing in the doorway with a frown in his face.

Kei collapsed.

The unexpected force of his coughing fit brought him to his knees, and he knelt down as he tried to take a breath and expel the flower stuck in his throat. As his vision clouded over and he felt hands on him, voices sounding in his ears, he saw the blood stained petals of the almost fully formed forget-me-not and had thought he had heard Kuroo say the words he had wanted to hear most but could only utter a soft murmur of 'Tetsurou' before he lost his consciousness and fell back on strong arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he woke up, light was coming from the window in his room, in his hospital room, he guessed by the white colour of the walls. He had been woken up by the sound of the door opening and closing, and then the feel of a warm hand slipping into his cold one.

He turned his gaze that way, and saw Kuroo. He was sitting on the chair beside the bed, his head beside Kei's thigh, and was caressing the back of the hand he held with his thumb. Kei took a deep breath, deeper than he had been able to for months, and the sound gained Kuroo's attention, who had then quickly looked up. His eyes were red-rimmed like he had been crying and his bedhead had been crazier than usual.

Seeing him awake, Kuroo had frozen for a few moments, before suddenly he was out of his chair and pulling Kei into a hug. Kei managed to weakly hug him back, before Kuroo had slowly pulled away and sat back down in the chair, one of his hands taking Kei's and the other softly brushing his cheek.

Kei was starting to panic though. He had remembered what had happened as best he could, and all the signs pointed to Kuroo knowing what had happened. That didn't, in Kei's mind, explain what Kuroo was doing here, holding his hand.

Kuroo could see the panic in his eyes and immediately leaned forward in the chair, softly saying, "Hey hey, relax, love. Everything's alright. The flowers are gone."

Kei breathed out a hoarse, "How did u know?" And watched Kuroo let go of his hand to get a glass of water.

Only after he had helped Kei drink, did he answer, "Your mom and brother contacted me. When they realized I love you, they told me what happened and brought me to Miyagi to talk to you. You collapsed when you saw me. The doctor said it was because you were too shocked to see me there."

Kei, though he had heard what Kuroo had said, was focused on the first part. "What did you say?", he whispered, not wanting to worsen his sore throat.

Kuroo had taken a moment to understand, but when he had, he had smiled softly, leaning forward in his chair once more. "I love you, Tsukishima Kei", he had said, "And I will remind you of that fact for as long as u want me to."

And Kei had cried, this time tears of happiness before he had whispered those three little words back to him, and Kuroo had wiped away his tears and kissed him then, soft and chaste, only for a few seconds before pulling back and burrowing his face in Kei's neck. Kei held him the best he could, using a hand to softly brush through his hair.

Kuroo had said in that position, "Don't you scare me like that again. I thought I lost you."

Kei had simply said 'I won't' and it been enough, because they both knew that Kei meant those words more than anything else.

Kei's mother had come back a while later, and the doctor had looked him over and declared him fully free of his curse and that he would be able to go home that afternoon. The long awaited good news had brought about another round of tears but this time they were happy ones.

Kei's team and professors were happy to have him back, and he managed to catch up on both his school work and club activities. Eventually, he had finished his studies and had moved to Tokyo, where Kuroo had been waiting for him for the last two years.

Now, five years later, as Kei looked forward and saw Tetsurou standing under the archway made of the same flowers that had once threatened to kill him, now depicting their love for and promises to each other and waiting for him to start their new life together, Kei thought everything they had been through had been worth it, if only for this single moment packed with so much love, joy and happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> The meaning of the flowers that I used are  
> Honeysuckle - devoted affection  
> Forget-me-not - True love  
> Red tulip - undying love  
> Baby's Breath - innocence
> 
> I don't know if any of the flowers are poisonous but if they are, then pretend they didn't affect him.
> 
> Anyways, I hope u enjoy and have a good day/ night!!!


End file.
